Whistle-blower suit claimed Navy kickbacks in 2006

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A recently unsealed whistle-blower lawsuit claims a civilian Navy employee and a Navy contractor engaged in a bribery and kickback scheme going back to at least 2004.

The lawsuit was first filed in a federal court in Georgia in 2006. It predates by more than four years criminal charges brought by federal prosecutors in Rhode Island in 2011 that allege a similar scheme by some of the same people cost the government $10 million.

Authorities would not comment on why the contractor and Navy employee were allowed to continue their alleged criminal conduct for years after authorities were first alerted to it.

One of the men named in the lawsuit has pleaded guilty to similar allegations in the criminal case. The other has pleaded not guilty.